Honour Amongst Thieves
by dark-brohood
Summary: Nhedrys Dzrevnorz has been a troublemaker her entire life, always getting into trouble for breaking the rules her father laid out for the city. With the help of her pet mechanical spider, she wreaks havoc throughout Fal'Zhardum Din, not caring about the consequences. Extended summary inside.
1. The Tower of Mzark

**~ EXTENDED SUMMARY ~**

**Nhedrys Dzrevnorz has been a troublemaker her entire life, always getting into trouble for breaking the rules her father laid out for the city. With the help of her pet mechanical spider, she wreaks havoc throughout Fal'Zhardum Din, not caring about the consequences.**

**Her father has forbidden her from entering her favourite part of the city, the oculory in the Tower of Mzark, and she will do anything to get in there to see why. After getting caught trying to sneak in and put on soul gathering duty, she finds her opportunity in a locked door and a bag full of soul gems. And in there she finds an Elder Scroll.**

**When she reads the Elder Scroll, she gets flung forward in time three thousand years, and has to navigate this strange new world where her entire race is gone, and most of their culture and history has disappeared. She finds friends in a trio of thieves that take her to Riften and bring her into the Thieves Guild, where she earns her keep and learns about this strange new world she now lives in.**

**But not everything is perfect. Tensions are running high between best friends as Mercer Frey spirals into madness, and when the Guildmaster lies dead at the bottom of the crypt, Nhedrys doesn't know who to trust.**

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**Thanks for clicking on this! I've put so much thought and effort into this to make it different from all my other Skyrim fics and I think I really did it. There's a tone there that wasn't there before and I hope it continues to the very last word.**

**Anyway, this takes place twenty (20) years before Skyrim begins, so none of the dragons returning or shit like that have happened yet. It's still way off in the future. I just need (and want) to write this to set up the whole Outcasts universe.**

**This won't be canon compliant. Just stating that now. I'll try to keep it as close to canon as I can, but no promises. Canon's already changed a bit because this is twenty (20) years in the past and the whole 'Mercer Killed Gallus' thing happened twenty-five (25) years before Skyrim takes place. So just be warned that it's not going to be like my Chronicles of a Dragon series that follows canon. Because this won't.**

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**CHAPTER 1: THE TOWER OF MZARK**

I hope you enjoy this! I am very proud of this and hope it does well. Just scroll down and start reading.

The feather-light footfalls were almost soundless as the young girl snuck through the large underground city, avoiding the eyes of everyone that walked by. She tiptoed passed large glowing mushrooms and the chiming crimson plants that dotted the landscape, passed the large lake the wisps liked to play, and towards the large tower she wasn't allowed near.

The bridge to the tower was covered with mer in either councillor robes or Protector armour, the blind slaves following the councillors and doing their every whim. The girl hid among a patch of grass and leaves, the click-clacks of her pet mechanical spider muffled against the dirt.

She looked down at the spider. "How do you suggest we get in there?"

It whirred, the soul gem that gave it life spinning once. It clicked its mandibles together, showing that it didn't know.

She huffed, looking back at the tower. She didn't understand what all the fuss was about in that tower. Ever since the leaders had found a significant artefact—they refused to tell her what it was—she and the others of lower station were forbidden from even stepping foot on the bridge. Which sucked for her, because the Oculory was her favourite place in the city.

She hummed and pushed her way out of the plants, the spider following her. She made a wide arch around the bridge, to the water's edge where a slave was collecting water. She paid him no mind as she pulled her shoes off, setting them on the shore and wading into the river, letting her spider climb onto her shoulders to avoid getting wet. She swam across and padded onto the opposite shore dripping wet.

Her spider jumped off her shoulders and whirred as she started squeezing the water from her clothes, wishing she'd taken them off as well. When she was significantly moist, she made her way towards the tower. She pressed herself against the side of it as she watched several councillors start moving towards the towers and enter, leaving their slaves outside with the Protectors. And when they had their backs turned, she tiptoed around the side and started pushing the bronze doors open to enter.

"Hey!"

A hand grasped her wrist and pulled her away from the door, her pet spider whirring in anger and looking ready to pounce. She was jerked backwards as she motioned for the machine to not attack, then looked over her shoulder at the person that caught her sneaking in to see a Protector.

"Let go of me!" she yelled at him, clawing at his hand when she was sure her spider wasn't going to attack him.

He yelled for assistance, and two more Protectors came and grabbed her arms, and started dragging her to the centre of the city, her spider following, wanting to attack, but following its master's orders and staying alert. She was dragged through the city, to the Debate Hall where the Councillors and High Priests and Kings performed their duties when they visited. People stared as they passed, the slaves turning their heads away in fear of being punished.

She was dragged into the Debate Hall, where there were several councillors talking about the artefact they had discovered, the High Priest turning to look at them as they held the girl between them.

"What's the meaning of this?" he asked. "Can't you see we're in the middle of something?"

"High Priest Dzrevnorz, we found this girl trying to sneak into the Tower of Mzark," one of the Protectors said, a fist to his chest in respect.

He sighed deeply. "Let her go."

The Protectors on either side of her let her go, and she took a step forward, her spider clinging to her feet.

"What were you doing at the Tower of Mzark, Nhedrys?"

"I wanted to see the artefact, Father."

The Protector to the right of her let out a squeak as she realised she had just tried to arrest the High Priest's daughter.

"You know you're not allowed to go there anymore. For your disobedience I'm putting you on soul gathering duty with Mlinvrin and her lot from Raldbthar."

"But father—"

"You are dismissed. Protectors, make sure she gets to Raldbthar."

Nhedrys deflated. She hated soul gathering duty. It was tiring and something the slaves could do, if her grandfathers hadn't decided to blind them all. She grumbled as she turned on her heel and walked out of the Debate Hall, her spider scuttling behind her. She ignored the Protectors as she made her way to the Raldbthar entrance into Fal'Zhardum Din, kicking rocks as she passed them, some of them hitting some of the Falmer slaves.

At least her father hadn't taken her attunement sphere from her, and she could get back into Fal'Zhardum Din once Mlinvrin decided she'd served her punishment. At least he didn't send her to Ralebrec, he always sent her to hunt mammoths.

She entered Raldbthar, not noticing the two Protectors that were following her stepping away as she entered. She ignored the people inside as she ascended the stairs to get her into the city proper, and she was officially outside of her home city.

The mer in charge of the entrance into Fal'Zhardum Din waved her passed as he lazed on the control dias, tinkering with a small contraption. She made her way through the city, all the way to the entrance, where the hunting parties and soul gatherers and farmers and traders lived and worked for convenience to the surface, a place Nhedrys wasn't particularly fond of. It was always too bright, too cold. Klalec was always telling stories of the time he was sent to the southern parts of the continent, where it was apparently very warm. She didn't believe him.

She got to where the soul gatherers' workstations were, and entered. There were three people inside, doing various things. One mer was cleaning his sword with a rag, while another was loading crossbow bolts into a quiver and strapping it to his side, making sure his crossbow was in working order. Mlinvrin was loading a heap of empty soul gems into bags, sorting them into their different sizes and into three bigger bags, one for each of them. They were obviously about to leave.

"Hey, Mlinvrin," Nhedrys said, standing just inside the doorway.

She turned, curly bronze hair bouncing as she did, and grinned. "Nhedrys! What're you doing here? We're about to head out, the diggers in Irkngthand unearthed a bunch more soul gems and Ralebrec wants us to fill them."

"Father's making me come with you until you're satisfied I've done enough," Nhedrys said.

"What did you do this time?"

"What makes you think I've done anything?" she asked incredulously.

Mlinvrin gave her a look.

"Okay, fine. I tried to sneak into the Oculory. A Protector saw me and dragged me to the High Priest, wanting to arrest me."

She snorted. "That's why you don't break the rules, dear sister. Well, if you're coming with us, you'll need this," she said, and handed Nhedrys a sack full of soul gems. "There's a bow over on that table there with some arrows, it's enchanted with Soul Trap so you don't need to use your magic. These are Inguharn and Yhnamuard, they're coming with us today."

Nhedrys nodded at them in greeting as she grabbed the bow from the table, the metal shimmering purple slightly. She pulled on the quiver full of arrows, secured the bag full of soul gems on her belt, and sat counting how many arrows and soul gems she had while she waited for the others.

When they were ready, Mlinvrin led the way out of the room and up the ramp that lead to the surface. They passed several Dwemer who had just been out on the farms, slaves carrying baskets full of food, and a couple animunculi that roamed the halls looking for intruders.

They left Raldbthar, stepping into the cold air of the surface, and Nhedrys shivered at how cold it was, pulling her cloak tighter around her. The sun was high in the sky, the light bouncing off the freshly fallen snow, making it brighter and cleaner. As they stood on the stone platform that was built above the ground, Mlinvrin turned to them.

"Okay, we're looking for mainly lesser and petty souls today, but we have bigger ones for if we see any mammoths or bears or the like. We don't think there's many nearby so we only have a handful of any higher than common. We'll also be accompanied by some hunters to bring the carcasses back, we could use the extra food."

She motioned to the two Dwemer who were standing nearby, the Nolzarf twins, Dhamgar and Jaredrys, talking to each other under their breaths. They mainly stayed to themselves, but they were amazing trackers, and spent most of their time on the surface because of it. Nhedrys joked to Klalec that they were afraid of being deep underground, and chose to be hunters so they had no reason to go deeper than the first level of the cities that connected to Fal'Zhardum Din.

"Let's go."

The six of them descended the stairs and stepped onto the snow, the twins' eyes immediately scanning the surrounding to look for tracks they could follow. They started heading in one direction, and the four soul gatherers followed, eager to keep moving to stay warm.

They found a herd of goats, and Yhnamuard raised his crossbow as Nhedrys and Mlinvrin nocked arrows, pulling back on the string, and Inguharn readied his sword in preparation for the scattered herd to run towards them.

Together, the three of them loosed their arrows, flying into the herd. The white and purple tendrils of a trapped soul sprouted out of three of the goats as they scattered, rushing towards Nhedrys, Mlinvrin, and Yhnamuard's bags, filling soul gems. They fired on the scattered herd as Inguharn cut down the few goats stupid enough to run towards them, souls flying towards their soul gems as they killed more and more goats.

When they were all dead they helped the twins drag them towards Raldbthar, leaving the corpses just inside the door for other mer and womer to skin and preserve the them.

The day continued like that, them killing animals, taking their souls, and dragging them back to either Raldbthar or Irkngthand, whichever was closest, as the two cities were so close. In some places the two cities even connected.

As the sun set and they dragged a snow bear carcass to Raldbthar, all six of them tired from a full day of hunting, Nhedrys collapsed on her sister's bed, the bow and bag of gems still on her, her face pressed against Mlinvrin's pillow. She was pulling her quiver off her back and resting it on her dresser, a smile on her face.

"That was a productive day," she said, unstrapping her bracers.

"I'm sore," Nhedrys moaned, her voice muffled by the pillow.

She laughed. "What do you even do for the city? I know you can't get in trouble all day every day, that's not a real job."

Nhedrys turned her head, looked offended, as her spider climbed onto her back and rolled onto its back. "What do you mean, 'what do I do?' I'm a mechanic, I help build some of the spiders and spheres, and even some of the centurions."

"Hm. I was just never told what you did. I don't really venture deep into the cities."

"Yeah, I got that."

"Will you be able to take those soul gems to Mzinchaleft?" she asked. "I was going to take them in the morning but you're going to Fal'Zhardum Din, aren't you? Maybe you could visit our brother while there."

Nhedrys groaned and sat up, her spider falling off her back. "Do I have to?"

"I'll let you keep the bow," Mlinvrin said, a hopeful smile on her face. "Chedryna enchanted it, so you know it's good."

She thought for a moment, before sighing deeply and saying, "Fine. But you owe me."

Mlinvrin clapped happily and hugged her sister.

"Yeah, yeah, get off," she said, and stood up. "Well, I'll see you around."

They said their goodbyes, and Nhedrys left her sister's chambers. She went deeper and deeper into the city, until she got to the entrance to Fal'Zhardum Din, and the same mer was still tinkering with a small device as he sat cross-legged on top of the control. The entrance was currently closed, as it was night time at that point, but he opened it for her, giving her a grin as he held the device up proudly. It looked like a rat. He hopped off the control and placed it on the ground, and it started zooming around the floor, and Nhedrys congratulated him, knowing he'd been working on it for a couple weeks, and entered her home.

She started across the large chamber towards Mzinchaleft, but something to the left caught her eye. She looked over, and saw the Tower of Mzark, completely abandoned by everyone night set and everyone headed for bed. Something at the back of her mind told her that now was her chance to see what was inside, and that there wouldn't be another chance like this again.

She took a step towards Mzark, and her spider whirred and stepped in front of her, trying to stop her. She just stepped over him as she was drawn to the tower, looking around her to make sure no one was looking. The soul gems clanked together in her bag, and her bow sparked purple.

She reached Mzark unimpeded. She looked around once more before entering the tower, which was unlocked. Strange. Usually when there was no one inside it was locked. Maybe they forgot.

She quickly closed the door behind her, making sure her spider was inside. She passed through the entrance of the tower and into the oculory, where the massive sphere they used to control everything sat. She started up the ramp that spiralled around it to the top, where she knew the artefact was lying, waiting for her.

She reached the top, and gazed up at the massive mechanism the astronomers used to move sunlight. There was a beam of light shining down from the roof, collecting in a pool in the middle of the large sphere, the artefact held high in a cocoon near the roof.

She made her way up to the control pillars, where a lexicon sat in its pillar, buttons on the others. She pressed in the combination she knew by heart from the years she had played there as a child, trying to figure out the combination.

The disks span and the cocoon lowered, light now being projected at the right disks in the roof for it to lower. Nhedrys ran down the ramp and towards the cocoon as it opened up, revealing the prize.

She was very confused.

Inside was a scroll with a latch made out of an amethyst. But despite her confusion, Nhedrys could feel the power radiating from it, and she knew this was the artefact her father had been talking about for the passed month in the Debate Hall with the other city leaders, refusing to let her know, too.

She reached in and took it, her fingers humming as they clasped around it, holding it in her hands as she turned it over and looked at it. She unclasped the latch and pulled it open, and she could immediately feel power surge through her veins as she stared at the parchment.

The parchment moved, strange letters and symbols showing and flashing before disappearing, in a continuous haze, dots and lines constantly moving in the background, and she recognised a couple constellations as they moved against the page.

What in Oblivion was this?

"Hey! What're you doing?"

She looked over to see Astronomer Kagrehld standing on the edge of the glass platform, wide-eyed and panicking.

"Put that down!"

She looked back at the scroll, meaning to do as he said, but she was transfixed on the mesmerising patterns the letters and symbols made, despite not being able to read them.

And then, as Astronomer Kagrehld ran towards her, she felt herself get pulled into the scroll. It started as a small tugging sensation in her chest, pulling her forward into it, and her spider grabbed her ankle, somehow sensing it, too. And then the ground disappeared beneath her, the scroll disappearing from her grasp.

And she was falling.

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**Thanks for reading! Please consider leaving a kudos or a comment, as they really motivate me to write. I'll see you next time!**


	2. A Trio of Thieves

**CHAPTER 2: A TRIO OF THIEVES**

Nhedrys didn't know how long she had been falling for, but it felt like an eternity. She fell through a void, her spider clinging to her leg, for what felt like years. It wasn't long until she was used to it, and not long after that until she resigned herself to her fate, that she wouldn't be leaving the void.

She couldn't sleep, couldn't speak, couldn't scream. All she could do was fall. Fall and live with the darkness surrounding her, crushing in on her. She wondered if this was death.

After what felt like an eternity, and maybe it was, she closed her eyes as it was easier then staring into the darkness, and as she did, she felt like she was being pulled. She opened her eyes to see a pinprick of light below her, and as she got closer and closer to it, the tugging sensation grew, and she was flung through it.

She landed on a glass platform, intricate designs scratched into it, a thick layer of dust covering it. She coughed as the dust got disturbed from her fall, and she pushed herself to her knees. She looked up, and saw a very familiar sight.

Above her were disks on the end of long poles, a beam of sunlight pooling just in front of her, a cocoon hovering near the roof. She turned around and saw the control pedestals high on the platform above, the lexicon removed from its pillar next to them. Below her was the large sphere used to control the oculory.

She was in Mzark.

But it was different.

Besides the beam of sunlight coming through the roof, there was no light. The gas lamps that dotted the walls were off, and covered in cobwebs. In fact, most of the corners and the poles above her were covered in thick webs and a layer of dust, like no one had been there in centuries.

Her spider whirred in confusion and sadness at her feet, its metal legs clacking on the floor.

This couldn't be real. It couldn't be. Her people wouldn't just abandon a perfectly good city, no matter what. They were prideful and stubborn ruthless, she was testament to that, and wouldn't let anyone run them out of their cities without a fight. Oblivion, they had turned an entire race of people seeking help into blind slaves, and unleashed horrors on the native people of Skyrim.

She shook her head. They were still there, they just haven't used Mzark since she disappeared, that's all. She'd go back to Fal'Zhardum Din and she'll see her sister and her father and her brother, all worried about her, wondering where she had been, what had happened to her, and they'd rejoice and go back to studying the Elder Scroll.

How did she know what it was called? She didn't before.

But she couldn't have been gone for more than a couple months, maybe a couple years. They're still alive.

Taking a deep breath, and coughing after she inhaled a lot of dust, she nudged her spider into action and descended the ramp that led into Fal'Zhardum Din. She got to the entrance of Mzark, but found it had a bedroll and a bunch of books in piles next to a makeshift cooking spit. The coals were long since cold, a thin layer of dust covering the bedroll. But why would they be there?

She picked up one of the books, one with an orangish-brown cover, and saw letters she didn't know printed on it. She did recognise them, though. It was Cyrodiilic, and she could read a couple words. She was learning it when she had been pulled into the Elder Scroll.

The first word definitely said 'Dwemer', and the Cyrodiilic numeral for two was at the end of the title. Then in the byline was the word 'scholar'.

She put the book in her bag, thinking it would make a good material for learning the language, and left Mzark.

As soon as she stepped into Fal'Zhardum Din she knew that there was something wrong.

It looked the same as it did before. The glowing mushrooms and ores were still there, and she could hear the chime of a crimson nirnroot on the shores of the river, and the lake sat in the distance. She could see buildings in the distance, but they looked… wrong. Like they were broken, almost. The bridge in front of her had a crumbling barrier, and there was no one walking around, Dwemer or slave alike.

But what hit her the most was the silence.

It was never silent. There was always noise, be it from the few that stayed up to work at night or the machines that guarded them while they slept or just the general noise of people working during the day. There was always something going on, always something moving.

But it was still and it was quiet, and it was entirely foreign to her.

She looked down at her spider who let out a sad whir, like it knew that everything they knew was gone. But she couldn't think like that. There had to be people still here. It's Fal'Zhardum Din, for Oblivion's sake, you can't just abandon it.

She made her way across the bridge and deeper into Fal'Zhardum Din, eyes scanning for any sign of life. There was a roar that echoed across the cavern, and she jumped as a dragon flew overhead, heading towards the city and the fake sun.

"That wasn't here before," she muttered to her spider.

It whirred in agreement.

She continued forward, reaching the first of the buildings in the large cavern.

She was right, it was broken. It was in ruin, chunks of stone littering the ground around its base. But did she see movement at the top?

Her question was answered when an arrow flew passed her shoulder, hitting the ground behind her.

She swore, and pulled her bow of her back, nocking an arrow, and aiming it up at whoever shot at her. She pulled back on the string and shouted, "My name is Nhedrys Dzrevnorz, I used to live here."

A guttural sound came from the top of the building, and another arrow flew at her. She dodged out of the way and let loose her own arrow, aiming for where she thought the arrows were coming from. She shot two more arrows, and there was a loud _thump_ as something fell to the floor, and the tendrils of a soul came rushing towards her, placing itself in a soul gem in her bag.

Slowly, she made her way to the object, and from a distance she saw a body with two arrows sticking out of it. Her heart pounded as she realised she had just killed someone, but thought it strange that she'd gotten its soul. She wasn't carrying any black soul gems, the only ones that can hold the souls of man, mer, or beast. But as she approached it, she realised it wasn't any of them.

She recognised the pallor of its skin as that of a Falmer, but it looked… strange. Its limbs were twisted, and it had a hunched back. It's eyes were red and sunken in, only a loose piece of flesh covering what she imagined were small black orbs, too small for their sockets. And their skin was less pure white like her slaves had been, but were instead an off-white, more like the skin of the Nords on the surface.

She wondered what could have happened to it to make it look like that.

She decided she didn't want to find out.

She approached the entrance to Raldbthar, killing more of the twisted Falmer as she went, their souls filling the stones in her bag, and entered. The entrance was just as derelict and forgotten as what she had seen of Fal'Zhardum Din so far, and the stone stairs that led up to Raldbthar were closed, pushed up against the ceiling. There was no way into the city, as there was no control panel down here.

She swore and left the entrance, and collapsed onto her knees as tears welled in her eyes, and she began to sob. She clutched her spider as her body trembled, tears streaming down her face as the realisation set in that there was no one down there but her and the twisted forms of the Falmer, the race _her_ race had enslaved.

She didn't know how long she had knelt there for, crying into her mechanical pet, when she felt the floor shaking. She looked up to see a giant walking passed, its giant club thrown over his shoulder, slowly making his way towards the lake where the wisps liked to play. She wondered if they were still there as she watched him pass.

She wiped her eyes and cheeks and let her spider free from the prison of her arms, standing up. She couldn't stay down there, not with the Falmer and the dragon and the giant, and she didn't want to be alone. So she made her way back to the Tower of Mzark, as she knew there was an elevator there that could take her to the surface. There were others, both in the connected cities and dotted around Fal'Zhardum Din, but there was a clear path she could go through where she wouldn't have to kill anything else.

So she entered Mzark and climbed the ramp to the Oculory, eyeing the cocoon near the ceiling, wondering if the Elder Scroll was still there, and made her way to the elevator.

The elevator wasn't much. It was just a platform with a lever in the middle, with a platform at the top that would open and close as a platform approached or left the top of it. From what Nhedrys remembered, it was in the middle of nowhere, but so were the other ones. She'd just have to go in one direction until she reached civilisation or someone that could point her in the right direction, or even just a road.

She pulled on the lever and the platform shuddered, obviously not having been used in a while, but she panicked slightly as she wondered if it wasn't going to work, if she was stuck along in Fal'Zhardum Din forever.

The platform shook again, and then started rising, the exposed gears and cogs turning, working to get her up there. She let out a laugh and sat down, knowing it would take a couple minutes to get up there, and smiled at her spider as he shook in pseudo fear, clutching her leg for support. She pat him on the head to try and calm him down.

She watched as the roof got closer and closer, and then finally pulled back to show the sky. It was obscured by the cover that covered the elevator and the bars that surrounded it, not letting any unauthorised visitors enter. But through the bars she could see a clear blue sky dotted here and there with a couple clouds, and the cold hit her almost straight away. She was glad she was still wearing the cloak she wore to go soul gathering with her sister however long ago it was now.

The platform shuddered to a stop at the top of the elevator, and she stood up, stretching her limbs. Her spider followed suite.

Someone spoke next to her, something she didn't understand. It was so unexpected that she screamed and jumped, and her spider went into defence mode. She looked over, her heart still pounding to see that there were in fact _three_ people standing outside the gate, clad in strange black leather armour with way too many pockets and buckles to be practical, the middle one having spoken.

The one in the middle, an Imperial by the looks of it, chuckled nervously and said something, before repeating what he said. She just looked at him with a blank expression.

Next to him, a Breton man sighed deeply. He said something, and she recognised the words 'us' and 'in'. They were speaking Cyrodiilic.

"Sorry," she said in Cyrodiilic, wracking her brain for more words she remembered. "Don't, uh, Cyrodiil."

The third one muttered to the others, and Nhedrys only just realised she wasn't human like the other two. No, she was an elf, but not a type she had seen before. She had brown hair, grey skin, and purple eyes, a combination she had ever even heard of on someone.

The Breton rolled his eyes at what she said and said something back. She caught the word 'doesn't'.

"What are you even doing here?" Nhedrys asked in her own tongue, drawing the attention of the three people. "This is the middle of nowhere."

The Imperial's eyes lit up, and he said something to his two companions. He then turned to Nhedrys and said, not in Dwemeris, but in Falmeri, "That's Dwemeris, isn't it? I don't speak Dwemeris, but I speak the Falmer language. Do you know it?"

She nodded. "Yes. Of course I do. How does an Imperial like you know it?"

"I was interested in it. Look, can you just pull that lever and let us in? We're interested in Dwemer history and culture and this is the only place we could find that has an entrance into one not covered in bandits or wizards."

"This isn't going to take you to a city," she told him. "It's just a large cavern." Which was true, but only half so.

He deflated, and translated everything to his companions. She couldn't understand what the Breton was saying, but it obviously wasn't nice.

Nhedrys pulled the lever that opened the gate, and it swung open, causing the three of them to back up, and she motioned for her spider to stay docile. It did as it was told.

"Do you know where the nearest town or city is?" she asked the Imperial. "I'm trying to find my people."

He frowned. "Your people?"

"The Dwemer."

He looked confused for a second, before realisation dawned on him and he paled, taking a step back, his mouth hung open in disbelief. He muttered in Cyrodiilic, something she knew, "You're a Dwemer."

"Obviously."

The Breton and the elf looked disbelieving when the Imperial translated what she had said to them. Every word he said in Cyrodiilic, she paired to a word in Dwemeris, and from that was slowly learning the language. She was glad her race was so smart.

The elf said something, and Nhedrys asked him to translate for her. He looked wary, but did so.

"But that's impossible," he translated. "The Dwemer disappeared four thousand years ago."

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**Thanks for reading! Please consider leaving a kudos or a comment, as they really motivate me to write. I'll see you next time!**


	3. The City of Thieves

**CHAPTER 3: THE CITY OF THIEVES**

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Nhedrys was frozen in place as she stared at the Imperial, and the words he had just said to her. Dread set inside her as her spider whirred quizzically at her feet, lookin up at its master.

"What?" she asked, hardly a whisper. "No, that's not possible."

But she thought back to Fal'Zhardum Din, and Raldbthar, and Mzark. They were abandoned, broken, covered in layers of dust and cobwebs. The twisted, vile Falmer taking over everything, and the dragon and the giant somehow finding their ways into the cavern.

Had it really been four thousand years?

Tears started welling up in her eyes, but she wiped them away before they could fall.

"I'm sorry," the Imperial said.

She sniffed, and took a deep, shaky breath to control herself. "I'm fine. I'm fine. Look, I just—I want to get to a city, learn Cyrodiilic. Can you help with that?"

He nodded. "Okay. Yeah, I can help. Windhelm's a couple hour trek east. I can help you on the way there, if you want. I've read you guys were incredibly smart, and from what I've seen, that's true. I'm Gallus, by the way. Gallus Desidenius. These are Mercer Frey and Karliah."

"Nhedrys Dzrevnorz. And, uh, what _is_ she?" Nhedrys asked, and pointed at the elf, Karliah.

"What? She's a Dunmer. A dark elf."

"Never heard of it. Lead on."

He gave her a confused look before he turned to his companions and told them the situation. Mercer looked like he wanted to argue, but it was evident Gallus was the leader of the group. Karliah smiled at Nhedrys as he told them her name, and slowly, slowly, she started understanding what they were saying.

The walk to Windhelm was long, but Nhedrys didn't mind. On the walk Gallus and Karliah helped her with learning the language, the former doing most of the work while the latter pitched in ideas for words she needed to learn to survive in modern day Skyrim. Mercer just kept to himself.

Nhedrys glanced at him several times during the walk. He was cute, if humans could be cute. He had blonde hair cut off at the jaw and green eyes the colour of the trees in spring. He was also short, a full head shorter than she was.

Gallus, on the other hand, was only an inch shorter than Karliah, who was a couple inches shorter than Nhedrys. He had brown hair tied back in a bun and deep brown eyes that when they caught the sun turned amber. They were beautiful, in a way she'd never seen beauty before. Beautiful for her and her people were intricate carvings in the bronze of their home, and the glow of the soul gems that were filled will a soul. Beauty was the way a child built their first animunculi, the way someone made a big discovery in their research. It was the way the stone was carved out and the ore dug out of the earth melted down to make their metal.

But she was ready to see a different kind of beauty. To survive in this new world, she'd have to.

With the city of Windhelm in the distance, and certain she had a lot of the words down, she looked a Mercer with a smile on her face. "Nice sword."

"What?" he asked, looking over at her. Then he grabbed the hilt of his sword, made out of Dwemer metal, and said, "Oh, right. Thanks."

"Where'd you get it?"

"I found it."

There was silence for a moment. "You're not very talkative, are you?"

"You're a stranger," he said, letting his hand fall away from his sword. "I'm not going to share my life story to someone I don't know."

"I didn't ask for your life story," Nhedrys said. "I just said I liked your sword."

"Why?"

"It's a…" She turned to Gallus, and spoke to him in Falmeri. "What's the word for 'conversation'?"

He told her.

She turned back to Mercer. "It's a conversation starter. Surely your people have them."

He didn't say anything.

"So how come you're here if the Dwemer disappeared four thousand years ago?" Karliah asked.

The air turned sour and Gallus gave her a disappointing look.

"Sorry."

"It's fine," Nhedrys said. "For me, four thousand years ago wasn't that long ago. I lived in a city called Fal'Zhardum Din, a massive underground city that connected to other cities. There's one tower, an oculory, that let us see the stars. I'd loved playing in it as a child. But then my father and the councillors found something, an artefact, and used the oculory to house it. I wasn't allowed in there anymore, but I always was a troublemaker. I snuck in at night and I found the artefact. Turned out to be an Elder Scrolls." She shrugged. "I read it, and I was was pulled into it with my spider here, and I was falling for a really long time. And then I fell out of it, in the same place. Everything was the same, but different. It was all neglected, like no one had lived there for centuries." She sighed. "And now we're here."

They walked in silence for the remainder of the walk, which Nhedrys was happy to oblige. She was glad to talk to someone about what happened to her, but she was tired—she hadn't slept in over four thousand years—and there were a lot of questions she had for them about the disappearance of her kind, and why they called it 'disappearance' instead of them going extinct.

They stopped at the long bridge into the city, and Gallus turned to Nhedrys. "Well, this is Windhelm. It's cold, it's damp, and it's racist. I suggest taking a carriage to Whiterun, it's a better place. Or, you could come with us to Riften. If you really are a troublemaker, we could use you."

"Use me for what?"

"I'm not going to hide what we are. We're thieves. I'm the Guildmaster of the Riften Thieves Guild, and we operate throughout all of Skyrim. That's why we were at that dwarven elevator. To steal shit. If you're a good thief, you can join us."

Mercer gave him a look, but Gallus ignored him. "So, what do you say?"

Nhedrys blinked at him for a moment, before grinning. "Well, I always was taking things that didn't belong to me. I'm in. And hey, maybe I can teach you guys Dwemeris in exchange for teaching me Cyrodiilic."

"It's Tamrielic now," he said. "And you did most of the work, I just told you what words are."

"Well, I'd still like to teach you three."

Gallus smiled at her, then turned around and led the way to the carriage not far away from them. He asked the driver to take them to Riften, and he told them to hop on back. Nhedrys Climbed on with the three thieves, and enjoyed the ride south to Riften. Gallus told her what the Thieves Guild was all about, and that before joining the Guild she'd have to go through a trial to make sure she was actually a thief. He asked her her strengths and her weaknesses, and how quiet she could be.

"I can be extremely quiet," she told him. "It's my spider that makes noise, but he can just ride on my back."

"How'd you even get that thing as a pet?" Mercer asked, glancing at it incredulously before looking back to watch the scenery pass.

"I built it when I was fifty. I've loved it ever since."

"Does it have a name?"

"Nope," she said. "I couldn't think of one, so I've just been calling it my spider or my pet. It'll be fifty years since building him in Sun's Dawn."

"Huh."

Nhedrys fell into a comfortable silence and looked out at the wilderness. The snow and ice clung to the flora and covered the road, making it hard for the horse to pull the carriage through it, but not impossible. The leather the three thieves were wearing must have been warm, because they weren't wearing coats or anything besides it. Of course, they were probably expecting to stay underground until the snow blowed over, so there was that, too. And Karliah did look like she was suppressing some shivers.

They got to Riften as the sun set, and Gallus helped her off. They trudged to the front gates, a guard stationed on either side, and entered the city.

Riften wasn't like anything she'd seen before. She'd heard tales of the city while it was being built not long before her trip through time, and it definitely lived up to her expectations. She'd seen a couple above-ground cities in her time, but nothing like this.

They were standing on the main road, wide enough to get carts full of produce through them, with alleys between every other house and smaller, thinner streets that led deeper into the city. All the houses were two-storeys, the windows caked in ice, and lanterns hung from every door, providing light to the streets. As they made their way through the city Nhedrys spotted a canal running through the centre of the city, the water frozen over, and there were stalls on the sides of the roads, people packing their stock up to protect them from thieves. A keep rose above its surroundings, at least three-storeys tall, at the back of the city, each window lit up bright. And it was a sight to watch the day people leave for their homes and the people of the night, the gamblers and the thieves and the drunks and the prostitutes, bump into each other like half of their shifts were ending and the other was just beginning.

They stopped in the middle of the market district, and Gallus turned to Nhedrys.

"This is where we leave you. You can't know about the location of the Guild until you're a member. Mercer is going to give you your test, which you are to complete before sunrise. Hopefully I'll see you again, and if not, good luck finding a place in this time to call your own."

After saying their goodbyes, Karliah and Gallus left towards a building that looked sort of like a temple, rounding the back of it. She watched them disappear, and then turned to Mercer.

"Okay," he said, already looking bored. "The test. Gallus has been wanting to do this contract for a while, but he hasn't been able to use a member of the Guild because the target knows them all, so this is a unique opportunity for you. You're to break into the home of Maven Black-Briar and find your way into a basement. There you will break into the safe and steal a letter. The contents of the letter don't matter, not to us anyway, and you'll be paid well for this job. Do you have any lockpicks?"

"No."

He sighed deeply and opened a small pouch on his left bracer, one she hadn't seen yet, and pulled out five lockpicks. He handed them to her and closed the pouch. "There. If you break those, you'll have to find new ones, I can't give you more."

"Okay, got it. Where's this house?"

He gave her directions, then told her he'd be waiting there for her, and if she wasn't back by the time the sun came up then don't bother showing up, he won't be there. She told him she understood, and headed towards the home of Maven Black-Briar, whoever she was. It wasn't far from the market district, and it was larger than some of the other houses she had seen. Whoever this Maven was must be important.

She followed Mercer's advice of jumping over the fence into her backyard as the muscle the woman had hired had just died of rockjoint and she hadn't yet replaced him. She made her way to the door and crouched down in front of it, took a deep breath, and inserted her first lockpick into the lock.

She was never really good with locks, as no one really locked their stuff because they always had a machine guarding over their rooms. Of course, they were only there to hurt the slaves if they tried to steal, not fellow Dwemer. They didn't think that one of their own would steal from them. But there were once or twice a particularly smart Dwemer kept their stuff behind a locked door and she'd had to pick the lock with a piece of metal wire she had found nearby.

Feeling with the lockpick, she pushed up the first tumbler and jutted the tension wrench to the side to keep it up. She then pushed up the second tumbler and did the same, but the tension was too much and the lockpick broke. She swore under her breath and pulled the broken lockpick out of the lock, then placed in the second one.

This time she managed to unlock the door. She placed the lockpicks in the pocket of her coat and pushed the door open as slowly and quietly as she could, and it seemed that luck was with her, as the hinges seemed newly oiled. She crept in, her spider following her and climbing onto her back, hooking its front claws around her shoulders, and closed the door as softly as she could.

The inside of the house was warm, sconces on the wall alight with fire, and a fireplace roaring in the next room. Cautiously she stepped forward, her boot pressing softly on the wooden floor, and looked around to see if she could tell where the door to the basement was.

"Congratulations on the baby, Maven. I'm sure you and Hemming are very happy."

The voice came from the other room, with the fireplace in, and now that Nhedrys was looking, she could see the back of a black-haired woman with a bundle in her arms. She couldn't see the woman who had spoken, though. She moved to the side and through a doorway that led to a different part of the house, though she could still hear them speak through the thin wood walls.

"What did you name her?"

"Ingun, after my mother," the new mother said. "I hope she grows up to be as fierce as she was."

Nhedrys passed through another doorway into another hall, this one with a staircase leading up to the second floor. Underneath it was a door, and she could see through the holes under the stairs that there was a staircase leading down.

Jackpot.

"I'm positive she will be. She's beautiful."

"Thank you, Lillith. You're so kind."

She made her way to the door and tried the handle. Thankfully, it was unlocked, and she opened the door and entered, closing the door behind her. As she did, someone came down the stairs above her, and she used that sound to quickly descend the stairs.

The basement wasn't as damp as she thought it would be, considering the entire city was covered in an inch of snow and ice. Candelabras sat on small benches, their wicks burning, and she looked through the ones that had drawers to see if there was a key or anything in them. She didn't find a key, but she did find a total of seven round pieces of what looked like gold, like the coins she used four thousand years ago, but there was a dragon stamped on one side with the words 'PRAISE BE AKATOSH AND ALL THE DIVINES' on one side and a head and the words 'THE EMPIRE IS LAW THE LAW IS SACRED' on the other. She decided to pocket them in case they were the modern currency.

Peeking through all the rooms, one of them full of unlit candles in a circle with a book called 'A Kiss, Sweet Mother' and a dagger resting atop it lying in the corner, she found the safe in the corner at the end of the hallway. She tried the handle, but of course it was locked. She pulled out her lockpicks and rested them on top of the safe. She took one of them and the tension wrench and placed them in the lock.

Three broken lockpicks later, she only had one left. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath to calm herself and push down the rising panic, then opened her eyes and inserted the last lockpick. Carefully she pushed up all the pins, making sure to not put too much pressure on the lockpick while having enough to keep the pin up.

With the last pin up, she slowly turned the tension wrench to turn the tumbler, and it clicked open. She let out a breath she didn't know she was holding. Her spider whirred at her happily.

She pulled the lockpick and tension wrench out of the lock and placed them in her coat, then turned the handle and pulled open the safe. Inside was a folded letter, its seal broken, next to a small canvas bag. Curious, she opened the bag and saw at least three dozen coins like the ones she'd found earlier inside, and she closed it and pocketed it along with the letter. She closed the safe and pulled the handle up, then snuck back out of the house.

Mercer was in the same place as he was before, just as he said he was, except now he was counting a bag full of the same coins. He looked over as she approached, an eyebrow raised, putting the small bag into the bag at his side.

"So, you're back," he said. "Did you do it?"

She pulled the letter out of her coat pocket and handed it to him. "The seal was already broken when I got it out of the safe."

He took it, unfolded it, and read it. After about a minute he nodded, folded it back up, and put it in one of his many pockets. "Good job. How'd you get passed Maven?"

"She had just had a baby. She was talking to some woman named Lillith about her."

"Oh, she had the kid, did she? What'd she name it?"

"Ingun, after her mother."

He nodded. "Well, you passed the test. And a lot faster than I thought you would. There's still several hours until sunup."

"So am I in the Guild?"

"Not yet," he said, and chuckled at her scowl. "Patience, Rys. There's another test that Gallus neglected to mention."

Nhedrys crossed her arms. "Don't call me Rys. And what test?"

He grinned at her, his eyes sparkling with humour. "Well, Rys," his grin widened when she scowled again, "you need to make your way through the Ratway, the sewers beneath the city, and you need to find the Ragged Flagon. It's a tavern all us lowlifes frequent. After that, you're in."

"And I assume you're not going to accompany me through the Ratway."

"You assume correctly. It's something I did, and it's something you're going to do." He laughed, which was softer than she thought it would be, considering how gruff he had been with her earlier. "Of course, there's an easier way into the Guild Hall, but only us actually part of the Guild can use it."

"Will you at least tell me where an entrance into the Ratway is?"

He pointed with his thumb to the deep scar the canal made in the middle of the city. "Down in the canals. There's a gate over it. By the way, I want my lockpicks back."

She pulled the single lockpick she had left and handed it to him. He stared at it for a second before taking it. "You owe me four lockpicks."

She just walked away, and she heard him chuckling as she left.

* * *

**Thanks for reading! Please consider leaving a kudos or a comment, as they really motivate me to write. I'll see you next time!**


	4. Into the Ratway

**CHAPTER 4: INTO THE RATWAY**

* * *

It was quite easily to find the entrance to the Ratway as, just like Mercer had said, it was behind a gate. It wasn't locked either. If it was, Nhedrys would have gone back and punched him for taking her only lockpick back.

Her spider skittered next to her as she closed the gate and walked over to the door. This one was unlocked too, and they entered the undercity.

Immediately she knew this part of the city was definitely not regularly used by most of the people above, as it was filthy and covered in what looked like faeces. Smelled like it, too. She shivered in disgust as she descended the small amount of steps and made her way through the tunnel, pulling her bow off her back in anticipation.

She was glad she did, because she was attacked by a large rat as soon as she turned the first corner. She nocked an arrow, its bronze tip shimmering in the light of a nearby torch, and fired it into its mangy head. Its soul tendrils reached out towards her and entered one of her soul gems, and she wondered just how many she had left before they started using the gems that held larger souls. She'd have to check when she got to the Ragged Flagon.

She continued down the tunnel that twisted and turned throughout the city, with a bunch of ladders leading up to trapdoors out into the city, probably at the ends of dank alleyways to make it easier to get to it.

A couple more turns and she got to her first fork in the road.

To the left was a staircase leading up, and to the right the passage continued forward while gradually sloping down.

She pulled out one of the coins she had found and rested it on her thumb, deciding to let the coin choose. If it landed on the head she'd go left. If it landed on the dragon she'd go right. She flicked it, caught it, and slapped it onto the back of her left hand, taking away her right.

Dragon.

Right it is.

She put the coin back in its pouch and trudged down the right path, bow grasped tightly in hand. She was tempted to take out the dagger she had hidden in her boot so long ago to defend herself too, but she didn't know how to use it. She only knew how to use a bow because whenever she got into trouble, and that was a lot, her father would put her on either soul gathering or hunting duty, and it was best to do those with a bow.

She made her way into a small chamber with another large rat in it. She quickly killed it, stealing its soul, and opened the next door.

Her spider jumped up onto her chest and pushed her backwards, sending itself into the room with the force of the push, as three large metal spikes shot out of the wall, stayed there for a couple seconds, and retreated back into the wall.

Her blood pounded in her ears as she stood there, but not for long as shouting came from inside the room. She rushed in, arrow already nocked, and pointed it at a vagrant that had been calling this room his home. He was kicking her spider, and she could tell it was charging its electricity.

She lowered her bow, loosening the tension on the bowstring, as she wondered if it still worked after four thousand years.

A pulse of lightning filled the room, concentrated on the vagrant, and he fell to the floor, twitching. She kicked him in the side, but besides the spasms of his muscles contracting and retracting, he didn't move.

Still worked.

She left the arrow sitting on the bowstring as she continued forward, ignoring the alchemy table tucked into the corner. A couple of twists and turns later she found herself in a room underneath a well of some kind, as light was pouring down into the room from above, onto a patch of grass and ferns, butterflies flying around.

But what was disturbing was the greataxe that was stuck into a log, blood on its blade.

She quickly passed through the room.

She got to a set of stairs that went up and she ascended them, finding herself in a room with a table in the centre, another set of stairs leading up to it opposite her, and a door on the other side of the room at the bottom of two stairs, a sign on the door, though it was too far away to read. Not that she'd be able to read it, as she could only _speak_ Tamrielic, not read it. She'd have to ask Gallus to teach her how to read.

She made her way over to the door and pushed it open. Inside was a cistern-type room, with a well of water taking up most of the centre of the room with a stone walkway surrounding it. Covering half of the water, held up by stilts, was a wooden platform piled with tables and people, all of them drinking merrily.

She figured this was the Ragged Flagon.

She made her way around the water and passed a buff Nord that grunted at her as she passed, and she gave him a look before scanning the tavern for Mercer.

He was laughing, sitting at a bar, a tankard with some alcoholic beverage in it in his hand. He was laughing with a young Breton man and an Imperial woman that couldn't be older than twenty. She briefly wondered how old Mercer was when he saw her out of the corner of his eyes and grinned at her.

"Hey!" he shouted, raising an arm. He left his drink on the counter and stood up, moving towards her. He was tipsy from the alcohol, which apparently made him all smiles and a lot more open than he was sober, because he placed a hand on her shoulder. "Hey there! You made it! Welcome to the Ragged Flagon. Let me just get Gallus, he'll be glad to see you."

He patted her shoulder twice and walked to the tunnel not far from them.

"So, you're the new recruit," the Imperial said from where she was sitting. "Mercer told us all about you."

"He did?" she asked, surprised. He didn't seem the sharing type.

She stood up, nodding. "Yup. You broke into Maven's place and stole her letter from her lover. The _real_ father of her daughter."

"Really? Who?"

She shrugged. "He wouldn't tell me. But the father apparently paid her a lot of hush money to tell people she had a different father. None of us have been able to get in there without her noticing us. How'd you do it?"

Nhedrys opened her mouth to tell her, but someone else spoke.

"Now, now, Vex, don't chase away new Guild members."

She grinned slyly. "I wasn't trying to chase her away, Gallus. I only wanted to know how she got into Maven's house without being seen."

"That's need-to-know," he said, and turned to Nhedrys, a smile on his face. "It's good to see you again, Nhedrys. Glad you passed the test."

"Mercer made me wander through the Ratway for an hour."

"Did he?" he asked, raising an eyebrow at the drunk Breton.

He just shrugged.

"Follow me and I'll give you the ten septim tour. Then I'll get Dro'heh to get you some guild leathers, and you'll officially be part of the Thieves Guild."

"What's a septim?"

A couple of eavesdroppers, including Vex, looked at her strangely, but she ignored them.

"Oh, uh, it's the currency. They're little gold coins. Sometimes called gold or coin or gold coin—doesn't matter, I'll get you acquainted with this place after the tour. Come on, follow me."

He led her down the tunnel Mercer had disappeared down to find him, and said drunk Breton went back to drinking with Vex and the Breton man.

"So that was the Ragged Flagon, where everyone in the Guild drinks. You don't have to be a Guild member to drink there, but it helps if you are."

He stopped in front of a wooden wardrobe and opened it. It was empty, save a couple pairs of shoes at the bottom, and he opened the back of it to reveal a secret passage. He ushered her forward, closing the wardrobe behind him, and continued on the tour.

"You have to be a Guild member to be in this part of the Ratway. We call it the Cistern, as it's, well, a Cistern. This is my room," he said, pointing at a door. "If you have any questions you can knock on the door. But _never_ go in there. There's a lot of sensitive materials inside."

She nodded.

He opened the door at the end of the tunnel, revealing a large, well, cistern. She could see the night sky through a hole in the roof, which she guessed was the well she had seen in the middle of the market district, with a bucket on the end of a rope hanging in the middle of the Cistern and everything. There were beds and chests pushed against the walls, as well as a desk on one part of the Cistern. Stone bridges were crossing over so you could walk over the sewer water and to the other side without either wading in the water or going around the edges. At each point here the bridge crossed there was a tunnel that led further into the Ratway/Cistern. People of various age, gender, and race were milling around, laughing and joking around, some reading, while others were sleeping on the various beds.

"This is the main area. That desk over there is mine. These beds here are for anyone to use, but there are some more private beds down that tunnel," he said, pointing at the tunnel across from them. "The vault can only be accessed by me and my Guild Seconds, Mercer and Karliah, as well as my Thirds, who you'll meet shortly. You are not allowed near it, or even try to open it. It's impossible to pick."

He showed her the rest of the beds, as well as the training room, which was full of straw dummies and whacking boards, and also some chests that were built to lock after an hour after being picked, to help thieves with their lockpicking. He explained that there were certain people that would help train you, but you had to be willing to pay. He then showed her the bathing rooms, and also the tunnel that leads to the secret exit, which is in the graveyard behind the Temple of Mara.

"So that's the Guild," he said, standing in the middle of the Cistern. "For jobs, speak to Mercer or Karliah, they'll send you to the Guild Thirds, who handle the distribution of the jobs. Once you get a high enough reputation in the Guild, I might give you some more special jobs. Welcome to the Thieves Guild."

He then led her back out to the Flagon, and pointed her to a Khajiit sitting on the wooden platform, talking to a Redguard woman. She approached him, and he bared his teeth at her in a smile.

"Greetings," he said. "How may this one help you?"

"I was told to come to you for my Guild armour."

"Ah, yes," he said. "What is your name? This one is Dro'heh, and the beautiful woman sitting here is Salana."

Salana blushed.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Nhedrys."

"Interesting name. Dro'heh doesn't think he's heard one like it before. Ah, but that's not why you're here. Come, follow Dro'heh."

He stood up, and led the way to the Cistern, down one of the tunnels Gallus didn't take her down, and into a sort of storage room. He opened one of the crates and pulled out a set of brown armour and handed it to her, the boots resting on top.

"Uh, will they fit?" she asked.

"Trust Dro'heh, he's been doing this for years. These will fit."

She took them, glancing down at her spider.

"This one suggests you go to the bathing rooms to change, they have private rooms. Then you'll be able to claim your bed."

She thanked him, and left the room.

It was a struggle to put the armour on. She kept on her thin undershirt and her undergarments but stripped everything else off. The buckles of the thick tunic were a lot different than she was used to handling, and it took her a bit to figure out how they worked—she'd seen them on armour before, but she had never been strong enough to wear the armour the smiths made. The pants stuck to her legs as much as they could, but she managed to pull them up all the way and lace them tightly. She then pulled on her boots, which consisted of both laces and buckles, and she had trouble squatting down so she could tie them because of how stiff the leather was. How could anyone sneak in them? The bracers were easiest to put on, it was just two buckles securing them in place, but it was still a bit difficult to do up the buckles with her left hand.

Finally, making sure she had all her armour on, she picked up her discarded clothes and headed towards the beds.

She found the bed Gallus had given her and opened the chest that sat at its foot, placing the clothing inside. She also put in the gold she had found in Maven Black-Briar's house inside, underneath the pile of clothes to hide it. She then threw in the bag of soul gems, not bothering to hide them, and closed the chest, pulling the key out of the lock and sticking it in the pocket above her breast.

"Hey."

She let out a scream and jumped. She held a hand to her pounding heart as Mercer laughed next to her, laughing so hard in his drunken state that he was doubled over. Her spider whirred in annoyance.

"Sorry," he said, still laughing. "I couldn't help myself."

She swatted his arm. "You're very different when you're drunk, Mercer Frey."

"Yes, it's the alcohol."

She let out a chuckle. "What're you doing here?"

"I live here. Specifically, that bed," he said, pointing to the bed next to hers.

She blinked in surprise. "Oh, I thought you'd get your own room because you're a Guild Second."

"Nah, only the Guildmaster gets his own room. Or her own room." He shrugged. "The Guildmaster gets any pronoun room." He paused for a second. "I'm very drunk."

"What were you drinking? I was only in the Ratway for like an hour."

"I'll have you know, an hour is plenty of time to get drunk, Rys. And I was drinking Colovian Brandy. Very strong stuff, that is, especially straight and not watered down. I'll have to remember to get you to try some tomorrow night," he added as an afterthought.

"Tomorrow night?"

"Yeah. All of us drink every night and let the alcohol pull us into a dreamless sleep."

"Why?"

"Because a lot of us have bad pasts."

"Do you have a bad past?"

He was silent, which sort of answered the question. He collapsed onto his bed, still in his armour, though the front of his tunic was unbuckled to reveal a white undershirt. "So what was the First Era like?"

"Are we not still in the First Era?"

"Rys, it's the Fourth Era. The First Era ended like two thousand years ago."

"What year is it, then?"

"Fourth Era, one-hundred-and-eighty-one. The Great War was ten years ago, and I have a bet going that this Era's going to end in the next fifty years because of it. But back to my question: what's the First Era like?"

She sat down on her own bed, thinking back to her childhood. "For me, it was good. But it was plagued with a lot of war. That Nedic woman freed men from being slaves about fifty years ago, and we had successfully turned the Falmer into our slaves because the Nords were slaughtering them all."

"You know slavery's bad, right?"

She didn't say anything, and a tense silence fell between them.

After a couple minutes, Mercer said, "What's your favourite weapon?"

"What?"

"What's your favourite weapon?"

"Why?"

"It's a conversation starter. Surely your people have them."

Nhedrys laughed, shattering the tension between them. "Using my own words against me. Well done, sir."

"So?"

"I'll make you a deal. You ask a question, and then I ask a question, and you have to answer it."

Mercer thought for a second, resting his hands underneath his head. "Deal. So, what's your favourite weapon?"

"The bow. It's the only weapon I know how to use."

He sat up, surprised. "What? But, aren't the Dwemer great warriors?"

"That's another question. It's my turn."

He grumbled, but motioned for her to ask.

"Do you have any siblings?"

"I have a sister. She's in High Rock though, with the Mages Guild. If you only know how to use a bow, why do you have a knife in your boot?"

She looked down at her boot, and saw that the pommel of her dagger was sticking out of her boot. She shrugged. "Extra protection, I guess? I've never used it before, but it's a comfort. My question: where did you get your sword and dagger?"

His hands fell to his weapons, one on each of his hips, and pulled them off his belt. He held up his dagger. "I was given this by a friend in the Dark Brotherhood."

"What's the Dark Brotherhood?"

He ignored her question and picked up his sword. "This I really did find. That place just happened to be in Zthenganaz, a Dwemer ruin in High Rock."

"Oh, you completely butchered that word."

"No I didn't."

"As an actual Dwemer who was born and grew up in not one but _five_ Dwemer cities, surrounded by Dwemer people, I am telling you that you did."

"You can't prove it."

She laughed, throwing her head back, and he was grinning at her. "Okay, how about a proposition? I'll give you lessons on Dwemeris, and you have to teach me how to use those weapons, okay? _And_ you have to teach me how to read."

"I can do the first thing, but not the second. But I know a great person that can teach you to read, though he only really works with the children at Honorhall Orphanage."

"So, deal?" she asked, holding a hand out for him.

He grasped it and shook. "Deal. Now get some sleep, you haven't slept in four thousand years. We'll start training in the morning, and then I can introduce you to Syner and Steals-Many-Sweetrolls afterwards to get your first job. Then, if we have time, I can give you a tour of the city."

"Do you do that for all the new recruits or just the pretty ones?"

"Just the ones who have travelled four thousand years into the future."

He laid back down, placing his weapons underneath his bed, and Nhedrys placed her own bow, quiver, and dagger underneath her bed. She then stripped off her tunic, leaving her undershirt, and undid her boots and bracers, placing all three on top of her chest.

As she turned to say goodnight to Mercer, she could hear his snores, muffled by the pillow he was sleeping face-first on. He was already asleep.

She pulled her furs over over body and fluffed her pillow, sinking into the straw mattress which, while most people would think it the least bit comfy, she was used to sleeping on stone, was the softest thing outside of grass she'd slept on.

And she slipped off to sleep.

* * *

**Thanks for reading! Please consider leaving a kudos or a comment, as they really motivate me to write. I'll see you next time!**


	5. First Job

**CHAPTER 5: FIRST JOB**

* * *

Nhedrys dreamed of her family. Of her brother and sister and father. She dreamed that she was home, that it was all a dream, and she was safe. Her brother Klalec wiped off the soot from the forges off his forehead and rubbed it on her arm, his tattoos shining through the sweat on his arms. Mlinvrin laughed about how stupid she was to think it was real, and pulled her to the surface for another day of soul gathering.

She woke up in a cold sweat, panting. Throwing her covers off her in an attempt to get cool, she looked over at Mercer's bed to see he was still snoring into his pillow. She wondered if he could breathe with his face pressed into the pillow like that.

She stood up from her bed, pulled on her Thieves Guild leathers, and made her way to the Cistern. There were two people up, an Orc man that was reading a book and a Bosmer woman practicing her archery, but they ignored her as she approached the ladder leading out of the Cistern and climbed it.

She stared up at the rapidly fading stars, realising she hadn't been asleep for long, maybe an hour at most. She crossed her arms against her chest, shivering in the cold, and decided to go and find a place she could warm up, and headed towards the market district.

She didn't want to go back into the Cistern. Not yet. A place that was supposed to be full of people being empty reminded her of her empty home, and that she'd never see her family again.

She wandered through the city, eyes cast to the road as the night life filtered out of the streets and into either their taverns or their homes and the people that thrived in the day came out to set up their stalls or go shopping or go to work.

After wandering about for an hour, she found herself in front of a tavern filled to the brim with people, the smells of pastries and meat and ale wafting out of the open windows and door. At the smell, her stomach rumbled, and she placed a hand on the coinpurse she had taken from the safe earlier that night, filled to the brim with coins, and entered.

The roaring of dozens of people talking over each other hit her in the face as soon as she stepped through the door, along with the heat from inside that instantly made her wish she wasn't wearing leather, and the smell of delicious food and drink intensified. All of the tables were full, people banging elbows with both friends and strangers. Two Orcs, a man and a woman, stood behind the counter, cooking food and pouring drinks. A Dunmer was taking orders at the counter, a pad of paper in his hand along with a quill, and a Bosmer, a Khajiit, and a Breton were rushing around with plates of food and tankards full of drink, placing them in front of customers and taking dirty plates away to get washed. Several mercenaries were sitting at tables or leaning against walls in full armour, obviously waiting for someone to hire them and get them out of the city. No one seemed to be obliging though.

Nhedrys made her way to the counter, squeezing herself between an Altmer in robes with a staff on his back and a Redguard mercenary, and waited for the Dunmer to see her and take her order—not that she knew what food there was, as she'd been in this time for less than twenty-four hours and no one had told her about the food yet, besides the bread and cheese Karliah had shared with her on their journey to Riften.

Taking a deep breath, she turned around and strained her ears to see if she could hear someone say a food item or something. She watched as the Khajiit placed a plate with a large pastry on it in front of a Nord, say what it was called, and head off to the next table. She turned back to the counter as the Dunmer moved in front of her.

"What can I get you?" he asked, his quill hovering about the paper.

"A, uh, strawberry crostata please. And some water."

He nodded, spouted a price, and she handed the gold over. He thanked her and placed it in a jar under the counter, and handed the paper to one of the Orcs.

She felt a tap on her shoulder, and she glanced over it to see a teenage Nord standing there, satchel in hand. His long red hair was pulled back into a ponytail, and his green eyes were scanning the customers of the tavern.

"Can I help you?" she asked, slightly annoyed, but curious.

He held up the satchel, pushing it into her arms. "Give this to the Guildmaster, tell him Brynjolf gave it to you."

She opened her mouth to speak, but he had disappeared by the time she managed to get out the first syllable. She looked down at the satchel, and opened it. Inside were several pieces of expensive-looking jewellery and a lot of gold, and she had the sneaking suspicion that it wasn't obtained legally.

She closed it and decided to just do as the kid said and let Gallus deal with it.

After her meal, which was delicious, she made her way back to the Cistern, which had a lot more people in it than when she woke up, and walked up to where Gallus, Mercer, and Karliah were talking at Gallus's desk. They stopped their hushed whispers as she approached, and looked at her as she placed the satchel on the desk.

"A kid gave this to me, telling me to give it to you. Said it was from Brynjolf."

Gallus took the satchel and opened it, grinning at what was inside. "Good. Next time you see him, thank him for me."

"What was that about?"

He opened one of his drawers in the desk and placed the satchel inside. "I don't allow children into the Guild, but I still use their services around the city. The orphans at Honorhall and the homeless kids gather information for us and sometimes pickpocket. Don't worry, they get paid for this so that when they come of age they can either join the guild or make their own way in the world. It's like being in the Guild, but they're not allowed in the Cistern."

She nodded. She would find it uncomfortable if there were children running around the Cistern, she thought.

"Okay, well, who do I need to talk to to get a job?"

"I'll show you," Mercer said, and led her out into the Ragged Flagon.

"So where were you? When I woke up you weren't here," he said on the way there.

"I couldn't sleep, so I walked around the city," she said. "Found myself in a tavern where that boy found me and gave me the satchel."

He nodded, and led her towards an Argonian woman, currently arm wrestling with an Imperial man. There were people surrounding them, taking bets on who would win, and cheering on their favourite. The Argonian pushed the Imperial's arm towards the wooden table, both of them straining with sweat dripping down the Imperial's forehead, until it hit the table, and half the crowd roared with cheers, and they started trading money.

As the crowd dispersed and the Imperial went off to sulk, Mercer sat down across from her, and motioned to Nhedrys.

"Steals, this is Nhedrys, out newest Guild member. Nhedrys, this is Steals-Many-Sweetrolls. She's in charge of all the breaking and entering jobs. Syner over there," he pointed to a Bosmer that was downing a bottle of mead, a crowd around him chanting "Drink, drink, drink!", "is in charge of the other jobs, but he's currently preoccupied. I'll introduce you two later. Steals, Nhedrys would like a job."

She hummed, eying Nhedrys up and down. "What do you think of Markarth?"

"What?"

She pulled a large book out of her bag on her waist and opened it, eyes scanning the pages as she flicked through them. She landed on one, and looked up at her again. "I have a job in Markarth you can do. Break into Wanan-Ze's house and steal anything valuable inside."

"Where's Markarth?" Nhedrys asked, looking over at Mercer.

"I believe on top of the ruins of Nchuand-Zel," he said. "I'm sure you know where that is."

A spike of dread filled her veins, and her mouth went dry. "Yeah, I do. I can do that."

"Great," Steals said, taking a quill and inkpot out of her bag and writing her name next to the job. "How do you spell your name?"

She told her, and the Argonian closed the book. "See you when you get back."

Nhedrys thanked her, and Mercer led her back to the Cistern.

"I want to go with her on the job," he told Gallus. "She doesn't know this time, and I can fix our problem on the way there."

Gallus thought for a moment. "Okay."

So ten minutes later, their things all packed, Mercer and Nhedrys were standing in the stables, waiting for the stablehand, a big Nord that didn't look more than twenty, to bring them Mercer's horse and one the Guild used for those that didn't have horses.

"I, uh, haven't ridden a horse before," Nhedrys muttered to Mercer as they were given the horses.

Mercer gave her a strange look, holding the reins of his chestnut mare. "How?"

"I grew up underground. I didn't go to the surface much, much less need a horse."

He nodded, understanding. "Right. I forget you're from four thousand years ago. Here let me show you."

He dropped his horse's reins and approached Nhedrys's horse, a pure white stallion, and stood next to Nhedrys, so close his shoulders were brushing hers. She didn't know why, but the closeness made her chest tighten, and her heart beat faster.

"You see this thing?" he asked, pointing at a piece of metal hanging from the saddle. She shook her head, and he continued. "This is a stirrup. You use it to get up onto the horse. Put you right foot in it, holding onto the saddle."

She did as he said, grabbing the sides of the to keep herself steady.

"Now push up, swinging your left leg over the horse's body."

She pushed up in the stirrup so that her feet weren't touching the ground, her leg wobbly as she did, and tried to get her leg over the horse, but she lost balance and tumbled backwards, Mercer catching her. Her face went red as he let her get her footing on the ground.

"Try again, and I'll help."

She nodded, sticking her foot back into the stirrup, and pushed herself up. She swung her left leg up, and Mercer pushed it so it would find its way to the other side of the horse, and she was sitting it the saddle of the palomino horse.

Mercer smiled at her, causing her stomach to flip, and Mercer left her up on the horse as he secured their packs to the back of the saddles, before climbing onto his own horse in one swift movement like he had did this for years. He probably had.

He grabbed the reins and kicked the sides of his horse, who started in a slow trot and stopped right next to Nhedrys, who was gripping onto the reins of her horse so hard her knuckles had turned white, and she was leaving grooves in her palms from her fingernails.

He let out a small chuckle. "Calm down. It's really not that hard."

"How do I get it to move?" she asked, eyes wide as she stared down at the beast between her legs.

"Kick his sides with the heels of your feet. To stop him pull back on the reins."

She kicked the horse lightly, and he started forward in a slow walk, and her heart skipped a beat as she was pulled forward, her grip somehow tightening on the reins. Mercer followed right next to her, watching as she slowly got used to the horse's movements.

"Are you okay?"

She was silent for a couple seconds before she answered, her heartbeat slowing from its fear. "Yeah. I'm fine."

"You sure?"

"Yes," she told him. "How long until we get to Nchuand-Zel?"

"Four days," he said, looking straight ahead as they passed the watchtowers that guarded the road up to Riften. "But that includes a stopover in Falkreath so I can fix a small problem with the Guild."

She stared at him, forgetting her fear of the horse for a second. "Five days for one job?"

He shrugged. "Usually Speaks and Syner send the jobs over to the thieves that live over there, but they're being investigated by the Markarth guards. So, you're getting sent over there. Besides, it's a good time to see this place, see how much it's changed in four thousand years."

"I really only came to the surface when I was in trouble."

"Why am I not surprised that you were a troublemaker?"

She swatted at him. "Shut up. You try living underground with nothing to do but bend metal for a hundred years. You'd get in trouble, too."

"I already get in trouble," he said, grinning at her.

She looked forward at the road to hide her blushing, and she wondered, not for the first time in the past five minutes, what was going on with her body.


End file.
